It occurred to me that a lot of religious conflict in the world could be eliminated if different religions were seen as complementary instead of contradictory. This focus on contradiction is rooted in intolerance.
One difference that should be looked at in a complementary way is the Sabbath day.
Islam, Christianity and Judaism each use a different day for their Sabbath. Could this not be part of God’s plan for peace?
Say if the Muslims had their meals prepared and was served by Jews and Christians on Friday, and then they could do even less work on their Sabbath day.Then if the Muslims and Christians prepared meals and served the Jews on Saturday, then the Jews would have an easier Sabbath day. Ditto that for Christians on Sunday.
Now there are those who love their Sabbath day just the way it is. That is fine. Those who want a change and become closer to those who are different, now have another option.
I was fortunate to have this idea come to me while I was working in a Synagogue. We had just finished cooking and serving for a banquet. All I had left to do was cleaning. This work was really easy compared to the mental and physical effort of cooking and serving. So I decided to go outside and smoke some pot. It was really nice. I went back in. While I was sweeping the floor, the same thought raced through my mind over and over. This is God’s kitchen. There were also feelings of bliss. After a while, I thought about Kiddush.
This is a Jewish brunch/lunch that they have on their Sabbath day. I realized that Judaism actually needs non-Jews so that they can be better Jews. Then I realized that this applied to all religions. Now we have this three day complimentary Sabbath.
Drawing on pop culture, I jokingly call this movement “Slack Sabbath”. But we really have to think about what kind of world change that this movement would make.
My friend published this article here:
https://sajadbangash.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/three-complimentary-sabbath-days/